


The Dragon Rider Returns

by guitardork123



Category: Drachenreiter | Dragon Rider - Cornelia Funke
Genre: Brownie, Dragons, Gen, Kiloh, Sprite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-09-24 12:01:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20358148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guitardork123/pseuds/guitardork123
Summary: Even the Rim of Heaven is no longer safe, so the silver dragons must once more find yet a new refuge. The difference is that there are no clues at all as to where to look, unlike the first search for the Rim. Shimmertail the dragon and his brownie companion Grey go on the journey with a boy they picked up on the way. This story takes place after the events of Dragon Rider. Since it was started before the book became a series, the later books are ignored.





	1. Prologue: The Exodus

**Author's Note:**

> This is an old story I finished two years ago, and I grew greatly as a writer as I did it. I'll post one chapter every few days until all 22 are up. Thought it would make a fitting first post.

It never rains in the Rim of Heaven. It snows, and it sure does snow a lot, but it never rains. This is convenient for the silver dragons for a great number of reasons, not the least of which being that it makes dragons lethargic and melancholy. Of course, the daylight already does that, as the silver dragons draw their strength from the light of the moon. It is for this reason that they are nocturnal. And that was why a certain dragon was not at all pleased to be woken up around midday, when the sun would shine directly into the Eye of the Moon and its reflection lit up the whole valley like a swarm of fireflies couldn't hope to do, not that the dragons ever noticed. Shimmertail, being such a large creature, not only failed to notice the initial polite tapping on his front right paw but didn't even awaken when Lola the rat started jumping up and down on top of it. "Oh, for Christ's sake, wake up! Now!" she screeched into his ear.

The dragon brushed her off like an annoying fly, but the damage had been done; the dragon had been awoken. He took a great sigh and mumbled (although his voice was still loud), "What do you want, Lola?"

The rat may have been offended by any other dragon under any under circumstances, but now was not the time to call Shimmertail on it. "It's not safe! It's not safe here anymore, we have to go!" she pleaded, "Please, get up!"

Shimmertail lifted his head and puffed out some smoke. "Lola, either slow down and tell me what you mean, or get out of here," he pouted. This time, he did not speak softly, and so his voice reverberated throughout the moonstone cave. Fortunately, the rodent seemed to have gotten to a great many of the other dragons first, so no damage had been done by his loud voice. "Quite frankly, I don't care which."

That actually hurt Lola a little bit, but she had more important things to worry about, and she knew Shimmertail wasn't exactly a "morning dragon" so to speak anyway. "Look, listen, I know we brought the other dragons here because we thought the Rim of Heaven would be safe from humans, but now they're coming here! Go on, get your butt moving!"

Lola had apparently been busy. Not only had she awoken Shimmertail, she also had a great number of other dragons in the cave's full and undivided attention. Shimmertail asked, "Humans? Here? What could they want here? They can't possibly live here, can't use the place for anything!"

"Come on, their humans!" Lola reminded him, "They don't care of they can use something or not! They want it either way! That Ben kid may have been alright, but he was the exception to the rule! It doesn't matter why they're coming here, only that they are."

"_So, what you're saying_," a new, far deeper and even more powerful voice rumbled, "is that the dragons once again must take flight and search for a new refuge?"

"No way, Firedrake!" a yet fourth voice strongly protested. "You all just got here! And how could they get here, anyway? Remember, you told us that Ben nearly froze to death during your own journey up here."

"If I've learned anything about humans by traveling with one," Firedrake, the third voice to have spoken, refuted with a bit of solemnity, "I've learned that if humans want something they'll find a way to get it. That isn't necessarily bad, but it means they're naturally determined creatures."

Grey wasn't quite a cat, but the pointed ears, fuzzy paws, and gray fur that suits his name covering his whole body might convince a near-sighted person otherwise. The difference, though, lay in the fact that this feline stood upright on two legs and was far larger than any house cat. Yep, he was a typical example of the mountain brownies that weren't at all a rare sight around the Rim of Heaven. This particular one interjected himself into the conversation after taking a big yawn, stretching, and rolling himself off of the dragon's Shimmertail's back to reveal himself at last. "Well, I mean, still, they can't be all bad, right? Maybe we can just try and, you know, let 'em have what they want. So what if they're coming? Ben was alright, so why can't these ones be?"

"You've forgotten, Grey," Shimmertail interrupted angrily, "Ben was the dragon rider - the prophecized hero. But dragons scare humans, and we all know what humans do to something that scares them! Just think of Slatebeard!"

Firedrake didn't appreciate that one bit. "You go too far!" he shouted at Shimmertail. Slatebeard, the eldest dragon who had charged Firedrake with finding the Rim was the only dragon who didn't live to see it once more himself.

"The point is peace with humans is out of the question. I mean, come on!" the old dragon scoffed, "They can't even keep peace with each other!"

"What do you suggest we do, then?" Grey huffed at his dragon friend, "There aren't exactly a lot of other sacred refuges to turn to. With humans here, there, and everywhere else, where can we go? I say we try and cooperate. You know, maybe cut a deal. 'Here, you take this half, we get this half.'"

"And who would you send to negotiate? Yourself?" Shimmertail retorted, "Or one of us dragons? It doesn't really matter. Whoever it is will wind up dead, as they'll scare a human witless. They're greedy, mindless killing machines who take everything in their reach, even if they don't really want it."

Firedrake let loose a small puff of fire between the two to break their argument up. Granted, it couldn't actually have hurt them since it was dragon fire, but at least it got their attention. "Enough! It seems neither of you has an accurate perception of humans. Now listen: we found a new refuge once before, here. Who's to say we can't do it again? The world is a big place. Somewhere is safe. However, we face a question that I needed not face when I set out for my quest: where? I knew not where the Rim of Heaven lies, but I knew I had to find it. Now, however, we don't just need to find a new safe haven. We must discover it."

"Firedrake, this is nuts!" Grey disagreed heartily, "I think I know where you're going, and it's crazy. Maybe the dragon rider could pull it off, but he's not here right now. We don't even have to go anywhere if we just find a way to resolve this with the humans."

Shimmertail scoffed once more. "A poor joke. That would be like trying to negotiate with a cobra! The only difference is you can kill a cobra and not get a million more cobras to hunt you down later." Firedrake was fearful of where this was going. Fighting the humans? It would not do, both because the bloodshed would be needless and that such a concept was hopeless.

"Nobody is making you go," he declared, "But I will. And I'm going to search for a new home. Listen to me: you shall not stay the humans' hands, and you shall not win a battle with them. We must flee, and we must flee while we have the time to do so. I understand why you both view the situation as you do, as the outside world is something you aren't very familiar with. That's why I suggest you go as well; you'll make yourselves useful and simultaneously learn a thing or two about the world we live in. That is..." Firedrake had known these two for too long to not know how to get under their scales. It was low, but it had to be done. "...unless you fear what lies out there."

"Fear what?" declared Shimmertail proudly, "We're dragons! There isn't a being superior to us in size or strength!"

"Oh? Then surely," Firedrake taunted, "a big, strong dragon should find a little travel to be no problem at all! Yet, you're reluctant to leave."

"Who says I won't go? I'll go! Grey and I, we will both go!" Grey didn't like being dragged into this.

"Whoa, hang on-" But Shimmertail was on a roll.

"And not only will we be the ones to find a new home, I will personally rub your arrogant young snout in it afterwards! How about that?" Firedrake just tilted his head and grinned at Shimmertail in response. "What are you smiling at? Didn't you- oh..." He didn't know how, but it seemed Shimmertail had been roped into doing exactly that which he preached against mere moments ago. He really didn't want to do it, but he said he would, and there wasn't a much worse action that a dragon could do than speak an untruth.

"Hey, hey, hold up!" Grey subsequently objected, "Speak for yourself, Shim. I didn't sign up for any expedition, and I don't appreciate you doing so for me."

"What is a dragon without his brownie companion?" Firedrake retorted, "And what is a brownie with no dragon? Neither Sorrel nor I, for instance, would be here in this cave if one of us had decided those years ago to remain in the valley, and nor would a great many of the dragons still sleeping here even be alive. It is almost an abomination of nature for a dragon and brownie to be apart. So go, Grey, as he needs you the same way we both know you need him."

Grey huffed. "Looks like your scales aren't as silver as your tongue. Fine, I'll go." As well, the brownie would have liked to remain in the valley, but he respected Firedrake too much as well as being too close to Shimmertail to deny them. After all, there wasn't a dragon alive who could say they didn't look up to Firedrake at least a little bit. Firedrake huffed once more, satisfied. "Then delay not. You set off tonight, and no later. As for me, I shall remain behind for a matter of time, see if I can't convince more to join us in our search. Grey? I'd suggest you start packing now."

* * *

"I think we should go west," Grey pitched to Shimmertail while the two stood by the very rim of the Eye of the Moon.

"What for?" Shimmertail inquired skeptically, as Grey knew he would.

"Because," the brownie enthusiastically defended, "don't you remember? When Firedrake was searching for the Rim of Heaven, he met his biggest stroke of luck out west. In a human city, no less. He found that map and the legendary dragon rider!" "So, what, you want to fly into a city and introduce ourselves? 'Hello. We're just a couple of beings whom you fear and would like to kill. We came here out of nothing but superstition. There are a lot more of us in the Rim of Heaven, where you're trying to go. Do you know where we can find a place to hide from you, those who seek to destroy us? We would really appreciate the help.' No."

"No, no, that's not what I meant," Grey corrected, "You might think they're destructive, but humans do have one thing going for them even you can't deny: since they're all over, no race knows more about the world's geography than humans." The dragon was silent; he could not refute this. "So, we'll do something like Firedrake did! We'll swipe a map of the world or something and see if it can help us! If I got my paws on some of their garments, I could pass for one at a distance. Come on, it's our only lead!" Though Shimmertail resented the fact, it really was their only place to start that they knew of. If they wanted to start anywhere, it would have to be in the belly of the beast.

"Fine. But if we don't survive, I'll kill you."

"Haha! Very funny, big guy. Now be a good fire-breathing, flying lizard and lay down so I can get on."


	2. The Well-Intentioned Thief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grey and Shimmertail have journeyed west... all the way west. Will they find what they came for?

Joseph's parents were out of town for a week, and for that he expected it to be the greatest week of his life. He could do whatever he wanted with no consequences! Decisions, decisions... should he stay up past midnight stargazing despite the midnight bedtime rule? Maybe, but not every night. He still needed his sleep, especially since, being a high school sophomore, he had to be up by six in the morning on school days. Maybe he could finally host a book club meeting at his own home despite his parents' objections, though. "Eh, I'll make it up as I go along," he figured.

It was 7:00 at night, and Joseph thought he might get on that first idea of his. But as he opened his closet door, his cell rang. "Hey, Maggie."

_"Hey, are you OK?"_

Even though nobody was watching him, the boy raised an eyebrow curiously. "Yeah... why?" he asked suspiciously. Was somebody else hurt? Was there some threat against him? Already he began to get a little anxious. He felt his heart beat a bit faster, and he let out a little burp not loud enough to hear and hardly strong enough to require opening his mouth.

_"Well we talked about _Of Mice and Men_ today, and you said yourself you were really looking forward to it. But you didn't show up."_

"Crap, was that today?" he groaned. "We need a more consistent schedule. Pick a day and stick with it." He began pacing around his room, but at least the anxious feeling he had began to recede. "Sorry, Maggie. I was at flute practice and totally blanked... ugh, what's the next book?"

_"Relax. I picked one I knew you already read: _Eragon._"_ Joseph gulped, and his friend heard it. _"You said you read it."_

"I, uh... had a lot of homework. I never got past the egg hatching." This conversation wasn't going well at all. "Can you yell at me in person? I'm in the middle of homework," he lied as he opened his closet door. Normally that was where he kept his telescope nicely folded, but it wasn't there! He cursed in his head but tried not to make noise for Mary's sake.

_"I'm not yelling at you. Just try and manage your time better, OK?"_

"Will do. See you." Joseph was glad he got a chance to hang up and sigh. He was free from that obligation, but now he had a missing telescope. He only knew of one other place it could have been: the stable in the back yard that his family instead used as a shed. He really shouldn't have left it there since it wasn't well-sheltered from the elements, but sometimes he just couldn't be bothered to lug the thing back inside. It was no toy that he owned; his was large enough that it had to be mounted in a tripod, and rather than an eye piece it took digital images that he could view from his laptop, which is also how he controlled where it pointed, how far it zoomed, etc. Sure enough, that shed was indeed where he left it.

As he set it up, it dawned on him that by focusing so close on what he was about to do, he had left his bedroom light on! Yep, looking up at the room confirmed that. At least this time his parents wouldn't be mad, though; he remembered that they advised him to leave lights on so any possible intruders would think the house was occupied and active. So he let out a breath and booted up his laptop mounted on an old bar stool as he mumbled to himself.

"Jupiter's orbit is supposedly bringing it much closer than expected, so it should look absolutely huge. Problem is... where is it...?" Had Joseph run a quick google search that would have been easy, but it also would have been cheating in his mind. Finding these features was the most fun part, so he was on it with nothing but his knowledge. So he spent the next half hour searching the skies and coming up short. "Light pollution..."

He would have spent much longer, but at that point his border collie ran towards the house while barking maniacally. That always got old _real_ fast, so he put a quick stop to it by cutting the dog off as it ran and shushing it. "Quiet! Nobody likes that!" He growled at the dog. He didn't expect it to understand; it just made him feel better to express that. He wouldn't let the dog pass until it had calmed down, but once he did he watched it proceed more slowly, but still as if it had somewhere to be, through the dog door and inside.

That made Joseph look back at the house and notice his bedroom light was off. What had happened? He chalked it up to a faulty memory of having left it on and went right back to his hunt for Jupiter That ended when his dog went going crazy again. "Shut up!" He yelled at the house repeatedly, not that it helped. The incessant barking got so irritating that he couldn't focus! That was it, he decided, that dog was going in its crate. So he power walked inside, wanting to shut that mutt up sooner rather than later.

The border collie was by the front door; he could tell by the sound. So he followed it, not stopping yelling, "Hey! Shut up!" In its direction. The front door was also under two feet away from the stairs, and when Joseph could see the rear of the dog he found that it was apparently barking at the stairs. When he rounded the corner himself, he got just the slightest glimpse of the intruder. Joseph couldn't have determined if it was male or female in the split-second he had before the intruder jumped down the remaining stairs and scurried right out the front door, which had been open the whole time. All he caught before the person disappeared into the night was that the person wore a gray sweatshirt hoodie. Joseph recognized it, too; it was his.

Joseph ran to the door and yelled, "Hey, get back here!" as if he believed the thief would obey the command. To nobody's surprise, the thief did not return. Unfortunately, Joseph couldn't even see in which direction the intruder ran. It didn't help that across the street were only trees; he was in a very rural, out-of-the-way area. "Shhhhhhhit!" He had tried to hold curse in, but he failed. To make matters worse, his dog ran right past him, outside and into the trees when it saw the chance to do so. "Are you kidding me?" he shrieked as he knew then he'd have to take off, too.

The boy didn't even care about the thief; he just wanted to bring the stupid dog back so he wouldn't hear it from his parents when they returned. Joseph knew two important things, though; he wasn't very athletic, and even if he was he could never keep pace with a frenzied dog. So he solved that problem by instead jogging rather than sprinting after the canine. The dog had to tire out eventually, and it was barking like a madman if men barked (though one could suppose madmen might).

Thankfully for Joseph, he knew those woods like he knew the stars, and that was fairly well. But the forest went on for miles, and the boy could only keep track for so long before he was in unfamiliar territory. And by then he was also extremely tired out from having been chasing his dog for so long, his breath long and loud. "Ah, come on, you mutt... this is ridiculous," he groaned as he slowed to a walk. Luckily for him he thought he was getting closer judging by the sound of the barking. "Where the heck are you?"

Joseph heard a whine then, the barking stopped. He didn't get worried, though; he got angry. Much as he hated that stupid dog, he never dreamed of injuring it, but apparently someone else did. But he knew it was close, maybe twenty steps away and less by running. As he got his second wind and ran after the noise. Finally he found his dog; but not for long: the border collie was apparently well enough to run on past the boy. Fine by him; the mutt was probably running home scared anyway. But he had also run into the thief!

Joseph recognized the sweatshirt hoodie, but its wearer was perched on a branch about about eight feet off the ground. The boy almost missed the robber, except he knew if he wanted to hide in a forest, climbing would be how he did it. In fact, climbing was how he often did do it; hide in seek in a forest, especially at night, was pretty exciting. Since it was dark, Joseph still couldn't get a good look at the runner, but he had his phone on him and used its flashlight to shine up at the person. "Hey!" he yelled to them.

That burglar sure was fast, though: they had jumped to another branch before Joseph could get a light on them. They didn't stop there, either; like an agile ninja, they began jumping from branch to branch! "You gotta be kidding me!" Joseph yelled as he once again took off in pursuit on the ground.

By now he was panting harder than his cowardly dog, but he was committed now; there was no stopping. Not when he was so close. He kept trying to get a light on the agile robber, but never could long enough for a decent look. But he spent all his time running looking up in the trees, so his eyes were not on the ground. Combine that and the dark, and Joseph was sure to err in his footing. However, his error was greater than merely stumbling over a branch. He only had time to register the hiss he heard and stop to try and find it, which itself was the wrong move, before pain shot up his leg from his ankle.

Joseph cried out and shined his light on his leg; wearing shorts was a bad idea, for clinging to the leg by its fangs was a snake. He was too scared to try ripping it off and risking hurting himself worse or inviting a second bite. Unfortunately Joseph couldn't tell one snake from another, so even though he knew his area had a few deadly snakes he didn't know if this was one's poison was severe or even lethal. But whatever it was, it sure worked fast; already he felt a little dizzy.

The snake let go and fled at the same time Joseph fell over. He shrieked from the pain but tried to keep from moving or breathing too hard; he at least knew that getting too excited sped up the heart and made the bloodborne poison spread and work faster. However, it didn't help him that he had just been running, so his heart was already beating very fast.

As the boy kept on moaning from the pain and clutching his ankle, the thief stopped. Joseph watched the thief in his hoodie, but the person didn't immediately take any action. The shadow of the hood behind the silhouette of the starlight totally hid the person's face, but now Joseph could see the thief wasn't very tall. He'd guess at four feet, maximum, very short. And his body language didn't give away any intent; would the robber keep fleeing? Would they save the boy? Would they finish him off?

Were Joseph able to see the runner's face, he would know that their teeth were showing because they were biting their lip; they were indeed very conflicted. Joseph, though, was too proud to beg for help. He was scowling at the immobile burglar. Oh, tempted they were to make a clean escape. Their partner would certainly berate them if they dared deviate from the plan to slip in and out quickly. But were they so cold-hearted that they could leave a boy to die when they could save him? Especially when they were the reason he got bit in the first place? When they thought about it like that, the burglar's paw was forced. "Oh, bother," they spat as they hopped down from the tree and ran straight for Joseph.

Joseph still didn't know if their intent was friendly or not, it didn't matter much to him. He was paralyzed then, unable to do anything either way. "I-I can't move!" he weakly whimpered. The burglar scrambled toward him, struggling a little to get traction under their feet because of all the dead pine straw on the ground. But they used that to slide their legs backward when the reached the boy and fall in a controlled fashion quickly.

"Oh, Shimmertail is going to be angry..." the robber mumbled to himself, ignoring Joseph. Joseph decided that by the sound of his voice he was probably male, although he still couldn't see that for himself. But then the robber lowered his hood, and then... Joseph still couldn't determine the person's gender for himself. It was dark, after all. But the burglar didn't lower his hood just to show Joseph his face; he lowered it because it was in the way.

The burglar knelt on one knee and lifted Joseph's leg to rest on his other knee. He then cupped the wound with his two hands, squeezing the leg tight both above and below the bite, and the boy noted that they felt _extremely _hairy, almost like fur. His nails were also long, apparently also believed the robber was trying to cut off blood flow; he was trying to save Joseph!

The runner lowered his head, then, and... Kissed the bite? Whatever he was up to, it wasn't just his hands that were very hairy; so was his face. The robber was not clean-shaven. And when he began to suck with his mouth, Joseph understood: he was trying to suck the poison out!

While the short man sucked on the boy's leg, Joseph noticed that he had dropped his phone within arm's reach. If only he could summon a little strength to grab it... yes! Weakly, he managed to wrap his fingers around it. His arms didn't have the strength to bend, but he was just barely able to turn his wrist to angle the light toward the face of the burglar. And once he could finally see him clearly, he focused intently on his face.

"What the _hell?" _Joseph finally cursed for real, reluctant as he normally was to do so. This man turned out to be no man at all! Joseph couldn't have explained it were he asked, but this person was... A cat. Pointed ears above the head, a protruding nose, and gray fur all over his body have it away. Even his feet, while vaguely human-shaped, were clawed at the end of each toe! Those must have been claws rather than nails at the end of his fingers, too. "Wha... what is this?"

Joseph wouldn't have heard the answer even if the creature gave him one; he lost consciousness then. It seemed that the cat's work was not making progress.

"Oh, no, oh, no..." Grey whined over and over. This was unacceptable! He finally got to meet a human, and he needed up killing him. He couldn't let it happen! He couldn't let the boy die! But the only one who could help him now was... oh, boy. He could only hope. "_Shimmertail!"_ Grey shrieked to the sky as a desperate plea. He could only hope the dragon heard him, but the brownie knew he would never risk flying over the tree line and being seen. "Shimmertail, it's an emergency!" he called again.

Lucky for Grey this human was younger and lightweight even given that; never could he have moved a fully-grown human, but just maybe he could drag this one. One factor that worked to his advantage was the pine straw that made him slip earlier; now it would serve as a slide for the limp body. "Shimmertail! Help!" the feline yelled along with variations without cessation as he dragged the boy on. Given their weight difference, it still wasn't easy. He could only drag the boy a few inches every few seconds with each great tug. No, this couldn't be how their journey began. Was this the outside world? Was this the land he had been cursed to roam? No such evil creature as that snake could ever have been found in the Rim of Heaven. Nobody died in the rim of heaven, for most creatures there were not mortal. All the other dragons were worried about humans, and Shimmertail especially so. But all Grey could worry about was the snake that attacked an innocent passerby for no reason other than being scared. Tears formed but didn't fall as the brownie asked how this could have happened, how this could have been.

Grey had only drug the boy for about a minute before collapsing from fatigue and despair himself. Lucky for him, that was simultaneously when Shimmertail arrived, shaking the ground with his heavy stride, not that Joseph could have noticed. But Shimmertail didn't stop to ask any questions. He just swiped with one of his great paws to pick up the brownie and hold him close to his scaly chest before running off in the other direction using just one foreleg. "Grey, are hurt? Are you OK?"

"_No!" _The feline protested desperately. "Turn back! He needs you! He's going to die!" The brownie began trying to struggle out from between the paw and chest. "Shimmertail!"

"If we turn around, we'll die!" The dragon insisted as he continued to flee.

"No, he's innocent!" Grey continued to cry, "He's just a boy!" the cat managed to push just hard enough against the paw to create the space he needed to fall straight down. For a couple of steps Shimmertail's momentum kept him running, forcing him to run over and past the brownie, but he sank his claws into the ground to keep from sliding on the straw. Grey wasted not a moment; he'd force Shimmertail to help that boy if he must, and he ran right back to Joseph. Shimmertail almost managed to grab him again, but just before that Grey sank his front claws into Joseph's clothes. "I won't go until you save him!"

"Grey!" Shimmertail snarled.

"Are you so cold-hearted?" the brownie demanded through tears, "Your prejudice goes too far! I will never forgive you if you allow a child to die!" He sniffed to keep snot from falling. "Where's my kind-hearted friend who refuses to even step on a spider?"

For the longest time, like Grey at first, Shimmertail hesitated. But he did so much longer than Grey, and for a different reason. Grey struggled with running when he wanted to help. Now, with the brownie playing on his sympathies, the silver dragon was struggling with helping when he wanted to run. But Shimmertail didn't think he could run. Not without the love of his friend, and certainly not without his friend. But Grey held on tight to Joseph, making it clear where his sympathies lied, and if his closest companion was willing to choose a dying human over him in that moment... What did that say about Shimmertail? And what would it say about Shimmertail if he made a similar choice? He almost literally swallowed his pride; he had to take a physical gulp in order to do what he was going to do.

Grey pressed an ear to Joseph's chest, and what he heard only made him more desperate. His plea was more of a screech now: "Save him!"

Shimmertail craned his neck, and from out his open maw he exhaled a stream of azure flame. The stream engulfed both the brownie and the boy. While in most cases flames turn blue because they are much hotter than red-orange fire. In the case of a dragon, however, they were pure ocean-blue because their purpose was never to burn at all; Shimmertail could have burnt the whole forest down if he wanted, but the blue flame's purpose was not to destroy, instead to mend. And Joseph was bathed in the magical inferno.

The bath of fire cleansed Joseph of the venom in his system, but Shimmertail couldn't be sure until the boy would awaken. That didn't happen until a while after his lung capacity ran out, however, and the stream ceased. Grey urgently crawled on top of the human boy and lay his ear back on his chest, hugging him very tightly. He even yanked off the hoodie with the item he needed badly enough to steal in it. He couldn't even keep those things in good conscience after all the adversity his crime caused. When he heard the human heartbeat speeding back up and strengthening, he cried some more as if he had lost the boy when in reality it was a combination of guilt and relief that weighed down on him.

"Grey. We have to leave!" Shimmertail hissed. But Grey disregarded him.

"I'm so sorry..." he whimpered to the boy.

"Grey!" Shimmertail demanded to no avail. The brownie didn't budge. Shimmertail almost grabbed him again, but before he got the chance he saw Joseph's head lazily roll from one side. Almost on a reflex he retreated, out of sight but plenty close enough to watch the scene unfold. Under his breath he growled a little from frustration at the fact that the stubborn brownie was about to completely blow their cover, but what could he do about it now?

Grey had no idea the boy was about to come to; his eyelids were shut tight, squeezing out many salty tears, most of which fell on Joseph's T-shirt. "I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry..." he moaned over and over miserably. So that means as the boy slowly regained consciousness, the sight he woke to was of a pathetic, sobbing, and now naked brownie moaning about how sorry he was over and over. He wasn't really sure if he should make the creature aware of his consciousness, but he was too curious by nature not to.

"What is this? What's going on?" The boy muttered weakly as he lifted his glasses and brought them back down. "Am I hallucinating?"

Grey gasped when he heard the boy's voice and sprang right off of him. He proceeded to crawl behind the sweatshirt so it was now between them, and once there he knelt and lay his forehead on the ground in what Joseph believed was a gesture of remorse. "Please forgive me! I didn't know this would happen!" Without making eye contact, looking at the ground instead, the brownie pushed the sweatshirt toward the boy. "Take it. Take it back! I never should have stolen from you."

Despite the brownie's complete and utter submission to him, Joseph was still frightful of the talking anthropomorphic cat, strange as that reaction may seem. "I'm... I'm hallucinating!" he concluded, "The snake bite!" Joseph urgently checked his ankle to find the spot no longer hurt. The spot was still bloody, but as he wiped the blood away with his hand he couldn't find the bite it came from. It disappeared?

"You're free of the poison!" Grey informed the boy, "The bite has healed. You'll be fine."

That really didn't ease Joseph's panic. There was only one way to prove the creature before him wasn't an audio-visual hallucination. Very hesitantly, he reached out lay his hand on the soft, furry head. The brownie did not see this coming and retreated a little but did not shake off the hand; it seemed like he owed the boy a little faith. But to his touch, Joseph felt fur poke through the spaces between his fingers and heard the cat panting as anxiously as the boy himself was. Joseph couldn't have explained how this all was real, but he was convinced then that it was. The teen didn't want to make the creature feel any more uneasy, though, so he took his hand back. "What are you? Did you save me? What's going on?" he asked in rapid succession.

Grey hesitated to answer, but the boy had already seen him. He reasoned that he couldn't make the situation worse than it already was. So he finally made eye contact. "I'm a brownie, a nature spirit. You _were_ bitten by a snake while chasing me, but you're going to be fine."

"That doesn't explain why you stole from me," Joseph demanded.

Grey couldn't keep eye contact. "I needed-"

"And you can stop grovelling," Joseph interrupted. Grey almost forgot that he had been by then. He stood up on his legs and, sure enough, Grey seemed almost exactly four feet tall. "You're not very big, are you?"

"For a brownie I'm a giant," Grey informed as he stood over the boy. The cat used his foot to lift the jacket up to within arm's reach, took it with one of his two paws, and used the free paw to reach in its pocket and reveal... a book.

"You put me through all that... for my stupid pocket atlas?" Joseph grumbled incredulously. "You couldn't even be bothered to steal my mother's jewelry?"

"What? No!" Grey seemed disgusted by the thought. "I don't need shiny rocks! Just a world map. We... need to find a new home." The brownie was trying hard not to give up too much information; even he knew humans can still be dangerous when they choose to be. Unfortunately, he had let something slip already.

"Who's 'we?'" Joseph asked suspiciously, "And why do you need a map when it sounds like what you need is a good real estate agent?"

"Uh..." Grey hesitated to answer that. Shimmertail was already probably fuming for the conversation lasting this long. Joseph could see that the creature was struggling to keep something secret. As much as he _really _wanted to know... he also thought now may be the time to respect the privacy of someone who already gave away more information than they wanted to. He _was_ talking to something that didn't even want its existence known after all. Besides, maybe there was another way to find out.

Grey was relieved to hear, "Fine. We all have our secrets. Here's one more question that you might just be able to answer..." The boy felt well enough to stand now, so he did and took the atlas from Grey. The boy flipped the book to a random page and showed it to the brownie. "Can you read this?"

And all of a sudden the brownie saw a great flaw in his plan: once he had a map, then what? He felt even stupider now than he had all night. "Uh... No."

Joseph smiled. "That's what I thought?" The boy took the jacket back then, too. "I can read this just fine. But that doesn't help you if I'm not travelling with you. So why don't you come by tomorrow so I can teach you?" While the boy was trying to be charitable, he did also have an ulterior motive: he hoped that by gaining the trust of the brownie he'd learn more about him and his goal, satisfying his very curious nature. "I, uh... assume you know how to find my house."

"Yeah!" Grey accepted much more heartily than Shimmertail appreciated watching from afar. "But let me keep that. It should help me blend in with humans, right?"

Joseph shook his head. "Not without pants and shoes, it won't. Besides, I do need it for myself. This here isn't a bad hiding spot until then, though. Nobody comes in these woods." Joseph was about to walk away then, but he added, "If you're with someone - and, come on, you are - bring them, too. I don't want to give the same lesson more than once!"

"You got it!" Grey heartily agreed outwardly, but inwardly he would have been sweating heavily if he had sweat glands. Joseph headed off, then, and Grey mumbled to himself, "Shimmertail's not gonna like this..."


End file.
